New Delhi, September 14: Election Commission of India clarifying on faulty electronic voting machines (EVMs) used during the Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) elections said that the commission is not responsible for conducting local body elections. The commission further said that the State Election Commissions conduct such elections. The commission said, “ECI is not responsible for the conduct of local body elections that are conducted by the State Election Commissions and elections held by various organisations/institutions and consequently about various protocols and procedures adopted by them.”

The commission also assured that the tampering of EVMs is not possible. It stated, “Commission is confident and has firm conviction about the integrity, non-tamperability and credibility of ECI-EVMs. The basis of confidence flows from a wide range of technical and administrative protocols and procedural safeguards that protect our EVMs and VVPATs against any sort of tampering.”

The Election Commission also clarified that it uses only single-post EVMs and in DUSU electionsand multi-post EVMs were required in DUSU elections which are technically different from ECI’s single-post EVMs, The Commission said, “Commission uses only single-post EVMs. In DUSU polls it is told that multi-post EVMs (i.e. vote can be cast for more than one post for instance President/Vice-President/General Secretary), which are technically completely different from ECI’s single-post EVMs, have been used.”

On Thursday, the Chief Electoral Officer in Delhi also clarified that the Election Commission had not issued the EVMs used in Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) election and it seems to have been procured privately. In the elections which were held yesterday, The RSS-backed ABVP won the three top posts --- president, vice president and joint secretary, while the Congress-affiliated NSUI took the secretary's post. Polling was held at 52 centres across Delhi; 32 students contested the election.